Opinion

All babies are beautiful. We invite you to enter yours in our first annual Beautiful Baby Contest with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting the Newspaper In Education Program (NIE).

What is NIE? The Lancaster News NIE program provides 128 classrooms in Lancaster County with newspapers as a teaching aid. That amounts to more than 2,000 students reading and learning about local community events, local government and local issues that affect their lives.

We would like to thank the Lancaster County Community for once again supporting United Way of Lancaster County in our “Stuff the Bus” school supply drive. Special thanks to Frank Overcash for allowing the recreation departments in the county serve as drop off sites, to Heath Springs Dental Associates, who also served as a collection site, and to P&G Duracell for setting up a drop-off site for their employees.

It’s hard to believe that the 2010 general election is just a little over nine weeks away. On Sunday’s editorial page, we encouraged residents to educate themselves about the candidates running for the various seats.

In the coming weeks, The Lancaster News will be publishing stories about the candidates and the election. We are also planning to cosponsor a candidate forum, along with Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce, the University of South Carolina at Lancaster, Duke Energy and LearnTV in October.

Have you ever wondered how to get your child motivated about school or a class? Well, you need to meet Shuntay Stover. She is an eighth-grade teacher at A.R. Rucker Middle School. She motivated my son and his friends to be excited about school. I no longer have to struggle with getting my son out the door for school, even though she taught him last year.

Knowing how you have touched my son, I know you have made a difference with other students as well.

U.S. Congressman John Spratt said during a recent visit to Lancaster that he “wanted to go back to Washington to serve on the fiscal commission... which has a goal of bringing the federal budget back into balance by 2015.”

This man must think the constituents of the 5th District live under a rock and are unaware of his voting record.

Hippocrates (460 – 360 B.C.) said “Life is short, art is long...” The idea behind this article about the status of the arts in Lancaster has been brewing for a while.

I have been intently making notes of what is available in our community in the way of opportunities to participate in the arts so those of us who work behind the scenes can ensure we all have access to, actively participate in and be engaged in the arts and cultural experiences.

Once again, the county has been snookered into believing that a company coming into the county will actually help reduce the unemployment rate in the county. The article was about Red Ventures not hiring Lancaster residents, possibly because of their Southern accent.

Hiring only 27 people from Lancaster is a joke and a slap in the face to the county. Granted, the county does have a high rate of individuals who have poor reading skills, as pointed out in past articles. Even so there should be more than 27 people who could be hired by Red Ventures.

This is our story of why we decided to retire in Lancaster and why we will vote “yes” to re-elect Mayor Joe Shaw, the only real choice in this mayoral race.

We are Carole and Charlie Seng, both Lancaster residents. We took a long and unusual journey before we finally settled here permanently. We were raised in Fort Wayne, Ind., and lived there for many years.

The November elections are fast approaching and if the working class people want to be heard, then they need to vote. There are only six weeks left to register to be able to vote in November. Please register and vote this November so we can remove the idiots from office.

On Aug. 19, I thought my life had changed forever and, in many ways, it did. By change, I mean I thought I was losing my dad to a sudden attack while he was shopping in Kmart. One minute, he was shopping for a bike, and the next minute, he blacked out and was lying on the floor, due to a dangerously low heart rate. There were no warning signs. In the blink of an eye, he could have been gone. There was a nurse in the store shopping. When she realized my dad wasn’t OK, she helped him and stayed with him until the paramedics arrived.

The shopping choices in Indian Land have mushroomed in the last two weeks, especially for food shoppers. Two new additions to the Panhandle’s retail landscape – ALDI Food Market and Walmart – have doubled the number of area grocery stores.

ALDI, a discount grocer, opened at the intersection of Marvin Road and U.S. 521 on Aug. 12.

Walmart opened its doors at 10048 Charlotte Highway (near Elmsbrook Drive) a week later on Aug. 18.

The Lancaster News headline, “Red Ventures not hiring locals?” summarizes the reason why so many job-starved Lancaster residents are not getting the prized call center jobs at Red Ventures. It’s because of our Southern accents.

That amounts to blatant discrimination. If a standardized American dialect was a prerequisite for employment, then why on Earth are so many of our customer service calls answered in India or some other foreign country?

There’s nothing like having access to fresh vegetables. For several years, the Farmers Market on S.C. 9 has provided an opportunity to buy vegetables and fruits in season on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Recently, Lancaster County Council made some changes to the Farmers Market Commission. Council removed four members of the seven-member board and added three new ones.

I went back and reread The Lancaster News editorial, “Time to allow sale of alcohol on Sunday,” in the Aug. 1 edition. I think this is one of those times that The Lancaster News should have abstained. Since the paper did not take that position and is soliciting Lancaster residents to support the issue by signing a petition, I am stopping the delivery of the paper to my home.

I have informed my Sunday school class of this matter and will continue to pass the word to everyone I come in contact with in the Lancaster area.

Lancaster Mayor Joe Shaw’s community service work has earned him deserved recognition beyond the Lancaster County lines.

Shaw, a Lancaster native and Lancaster High School graduate, was honored during the recent Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the Community event with the Order of the Palmetto Award at the Fairway Room.

The Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest civilian award for service, was created by Gov. John West in 1971 to honor lifetime achievement and service.

There’s a saying that I, and anyone older than 50, have heard. It goes something like, “Let the works I have done, what I’ve given and what I plan to do, speak for me. What I do should come from the heart and truly from the heart. Those deeds of goodness and kindness will be known by a higher power and should not be done for praise from man.”

Most everyone has a lot on their plate and it is easy to get frustrated. But one day our works – both good and bad – will be noted.